Dolphins' naming-rights deal has NFL bending its own rules, again

The NFL is at it again.

Last year, it pressured Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo to pull out of a fantasy football convention he was part of, which ultimately led to the event being canceled. The NFL was unhappy because the event was being held at a convention center in Las Vegas, and the convention center is connected to a casino.

At the time, a league spokesman told Fox Sports, “Players and NFL personnel may not participate in promotional activities or other appearances at or in connection with events that are held or sponsored by casinos.”

If that’s the case, why then is the stadium the Miami Dolphins play in now called Hard Rock Stadium?

Oh, wait … might it be because Dolphins owner Stephen Ross is making $250 million off the deal? Money that he doesn’t have to share with the other league owners? Money that will help him recoup the estimated $400 million he is spending to update the facility (money that had to be spent if they ever wanted to see another Super Bowl in South Florida, by the way)?

It’s cynical, but it’s probably for all of those reasons.

While many of us know Hard Rock for its music-themed cafes around the world, the company has increasingly gotten involved in the hotel and casino game, and on the company’s website, casinos are prominently listed on the main page.

More to the point, the Seminole Hard Rock Casino is just 10 miles from the Dolphins’ stadium, though there is a Hard Rock Cafe in Miami, about 16 miles south of the stadium.

During Wednesday’s press conference announcing the partnership (unable to dig shovels into the earth, the bold names on hand smashed guitars), Miami team president and CEO Tom Garfinkel explained why the team’s agreement was cleared by the league.

“The deal we did isn’t with the casino,” he said. “The deal we did is with the entertainment brand of Hard Rock — the hotels, the restaurants and live music brand. So those are pretty separate.”

The issue here isn’t that the Dolphins have gotten in bed with a casino brand. The issue is the NFL’s hypocrisy. When several players – Romo’s convention was supposed to have appearances from Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski, among others – was going to make money off fantasy football (something the NFL heavily touts, by the way), it had to be nixed because the building was merely connected to a casino. But when it’s an owner taking money directly from a company that runs casinos, it’s OK?

Similarly, the league is against legalized sports gambling, with commissioner Roger Goodell saying in 2014 that the league remains opposed to legalized gambling. That position includes daily fantasy sports, though at least two league owners, Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft, invested in DFS companies.

The NFL itself said “players and NFL personnel” are not permitted to have business deals with casinos. Aren’t owners NFL personnel? Sure, they write the checks, they don’t collect them, but other than maybe Seattle’s Paul Allen, how many NFL owners don’t take every chance they can get to be in front of cameras? They are stewards of the league, protectors of its vaunted shield (all of which is code for “whatever keeps the money flowing in,” but we digress).

So either be against gambling or don’t, just stop cherry-picking when it is and isn’t OK.